Modern wireless networks, such as cell phone networks, often operate in areas having obstacles to signal propagation, including topographical obstacles, buildings, tunnels, and overpasses. These obstacles may cause signal loss when they impede wireless signals, resulting in dropped calls in a cell phone network. Occasionally, network equipment, such as base station equipment, may malfunction, also resulting in dropped calls. This performance degradation creates dissatisfaction amongst customers and leads to complaints that must be remedied.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to determine if such performance degradation is caused by equipment failure, as opposed to physical obstacles to proper signal propagation, without dispatching a technician to physically inspect the equipment. In the case of equipment failure, the technicians must attempt to diagnosis and repair the equipment. However, in the case when the network equipment is operating normally, but physical obstacles impede proper signal propagation, dispatching a technician to the location of physical equipment is wasteful and expensive. Thus, network providers may wish to minimize physical responses to only those situations with an equipment malfunction and to eliminate physical responses where the signal loss or dropped calls are due to other reasons.
Overview
In order to determine whether or not a physical response is necessary in response to dropped calls, a method including the operations of receiving per call measurement (PCM) data associated with a radio access network, processing the PCM data to perform a rolling average analysis of dropped calls by the radio access network, processing the rolling average analysis to determine if a location analysis is required, in response to determining that the location analysis is required, processing the PCM data to perform the location analysis of the dropped calls and processing the location analysis to determine if a response is required, is used to eliminate physical responses when the dropped calls are not due to equipment malfunctions, but rather, to other reasons.